by Gertrud U. Rey In 1988 the World Health Organization, Rotary International, UNICEF, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention passed the initiative to eradicate polio globally by the year 2000. We are now 23 years past this deadline, and it is increasingly clear that this goal will likely never be achieved. Smallpox …
Although monkeypox cases continue to increase around the world, the average person is at low risk of becoming infected.
The TWiV team explains how infectious horsepox virus – likely the ancestor of smallpox vaccines – was recovered from chemically synthesized DNA fragments. <span data-mce-type=”bookmark” style=”display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;” class=”mce_SELRES_start”></span><span data-mce-type=”bookmark” style=”display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;” class=”mce_SELRES_start”></span>&lt;span data-mce-type=”bookmark” style=”display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;” class=”mce_SELRES_start”&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&amp;lt;span data-mce-type=”bookmark” …
On episode #288 of the science show This Week in Virology, the Twivsters discuss how reverse transcriptase encoded in the human genome might produce DNA copies of RNA viruses in infected cells. You can find TWiV #288 at www.microbe.tv/twiv.
Later this month (May 2014) the World Health Assembly will decide whether to destroy the remaining stocks of variola virus – the agent of smallpox – or to allow continued research on the virus at WHO-approved laboratories. After the eradication of smallpox in 1980, the World Health Organization called for destruction of known remaining stocks …
Should variola virus, the agent of smallpox, be destroyed? Read More »
